Beirut: Beirut's main streets were shut down and armed guards stood vigilant as anti-Syrian crowds chanting political slogans and waving the Lebanese flag packed into the capital's largest square in homage of slain Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel during his funeral on Thursday.
At least 200,000 people packed Martyr's Square and the surrounding streets, said Lebanese security sources.
Officials randomly checked bags and kept a close watch on the gathering, which took on the appearance of a protest march, in efforts to quell any sectarian violence that might break out in Martyr's Square.
Gemayel, 34, a rising politician from a prominent political family, was shot to death in his car in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut Tuesday.
Pallbearers and mourners carried his coffin, draped in the banner of his Christian Phalange party, down a mountain road from his ancestral hometown of Bikfaya to St George Cathedral in Beirut.
Gemayel's death has sparked an outcry from fellow anti-Syrian politicians, who immediately blamed Damascus for the killing and deepened the political crisis surrounding Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government.
As a mix of thousands of Lebanese filed into the church at 6 am for Gemayel's funeral, pro-Syrian politicians and their supporters were met with boos while anti-Syrian politicians were met with cheers.
Gemayel's slaying came amid a power struggle between Siniora and pro-Syrian factions, led by the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, over the creation of a UN-backed tribunal to investigate the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
"They might try to kill another minister, it's very possible and plausible," Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said Wednesday. "And they might kill other members of parliament ... so as to reduce the majority in parliament."
Syria has denied any involvement and condemned Gemayel's killing.
Washington has not openly linked Damascus to the murder, but on Wednesday President Bush called Siniora and expressed "the unwavering commitment of the United States to help build Lebanese democracy, and to support Lebanese independence from the encroachments of Iran and Syria," according to a statement from White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Britain and the UN Security Council condemned the killing, with Security Council members calling on all parties to show "restraint and a sense of responsibility" in the crisis.
At the same time, the council moved to finalise plans for the Hariri tribunal, authorizing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to make arrangements with the Lebanese to establish the court.
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UN investigators have linked Hariri's killing to Syria and its allies in Lebanon, which Damascus dominated for a quarter-century. The Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah – whose militia fought a month-long war against Israel over the summer that left much of Lebanon in ruins – pulled its four ministers from Siniora's government last week to protest his support of the tribunal.
The remaining 18 ministers unanimously backed the court's establishment, over the objections of Hezbollah and Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. But a second vote on the tribunal was coming within days, said Saad Hariri, the son of the slain ex-premier and now the majority leader in Lebanon's parliament.
Hariri also blamed Damascus for Gemayel's death, telling CNN, "The hands of Syria are all over the place."
The elder Hariri's killing led to a wave protests, dubbed the "Cedar Revolution," that resulted in the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
Lahoud called Gemayel's killing a "sad day" for the country. But he told his citizens, "All Lebanese must stand united. Otherwise, the whole of Lebanon will be the loser."
Authorities said a man with a gun ran up to the car Gemayel was riding in Tuesday afternoon and opened fire, hitting him at least twice in the head and neck. Lebanese television broadcast video of the bullet-riddled car.
Amin Gemayel called his son a martyr to the cause of freedom, but said, "We don't want vengeance."
He, too, said he suspects Syria in his son's death.
"We know Syria killed my brother, Bashir, in 1982 and we have proof of that, but have no proof with Pierre," he said.
"So there are many fingers pointed at Syria because it's the same method, the same mechanism. And Syria has a revenge to extract against Lebanon since its withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005, especially how the withdrawal was conducted. So perhaps it was settling an account with Lebanon."
Gemayel's father was president of Lebanon from 1982 to 1988. His uncle, Bashir Gemayel, was elected president but was assassinated before he could take office in 1982.
Gemayel's grandfather and his namesake founded the Christian Phalange party, of which he was a leading member.
The United States has worked to support Siniora and pressure Syria, which Washington accuses of meddling in its war in Iraq. Bush called for a full investigation of Gemayel's assassination and urged the Security Council to move ahead with an international tribunal to prosecute the Hariri case.
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